/ 17 September 2014

Parliament backs Mbete in Twitter campaign

Baleka Mbete insists that her ­decision to ask the EFF to leave Parliament was not motivated by her ANC affiliation.
Baleka Mbete insists that her ­decision to ask the EFF to leave Parliament was not motivated by her ANC affiliation.

Parliament started a “know your speaker” campaign on social networking site Twitter on Wednesday, following the opposition parties’ defeat in a vote of no confidence in speaker Baleka Mbete.

The official Twitter site  @ParliamentofRSA sent out a number of tweets under the hashtag #KnowYourSpeaker with information about Mbete.

After trading insults with the ANC during a debate on Tuesday, opposition leaders walked out of the National Assembly. This allowed the ANC to defeat easily the opposition’s vote of no confidence in Mbete.

Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane, who opened debate on the motion, led the walkout after ANC chief whip Stone Sizani sought to table an amendment that would have seen the vote turn into one of confidence in the speaker instead.

As the DA, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and all other opposition parties were leaving the chamber, Sizani rose to withdraw his proposed amendment and suggested that as there was still a quorum – as a result of the ANC’s majority – MPs should proceed to vote on the original motion.

It was an unexpected outcome to an afternoon of fractious debate in which the DA and EFF were called losers and counter-revolutionaries by the ruling party as its secretary general Gwede Mantashe watched from the public gallery.

After a number of tweets about Mbete’s political background, @ParliamentofRSA started tweeting about “a typical day in the life” of the speaker.

Maimane started tweeting his own version.

Parliament was criticised by other Twitter users for conflating Parliament and the ruling party.

– Sapa